Visa Ends Signature Requirement This April

Visa has now joined the other three major credit card companies to ditch the signature requirement on credit card purchases in North America. No more signing for you. The ongoing migration to the EMV chip for cards brings increased security and convenience to point of sale, so a signature is no longer necessary.

So Visa has done away with the signature requirement options for all EMV contact and contactless-chip enabled merchants in North America, but you may still need a signature at some retailers. More on that later.

Visa is the last of the major credit card companies to ditch the signature requirement. Mastercard, American Express, and Discover have already done this. This has been in the works since 2011 when Visa detailed its plans for the adoption of the EMV chip technology. Since that time, Visa’s partners have deployed over 460 million EMV chip cards and compatible readers at more than 2.5 million locations.

Visa also wants us to know that in less than two years since the EMV chip was launched in the United States, card fraud has declined 66 percent at EMV chip-enabled merchants. Visa has made the signature requirement option, but it’s up to the retailers now to decide whether or not they want their customers to sign for their purchases. Visa itself no longer requires it.